Police Structures

“The United States should abandon its multiple/decentralized/uncoordinated policing structure in favor of a single/centralized system.”

The police system in the USA is responsible for the welfare of all the citizens in the country. There are various subdivisions of the police force that make management a hard task, especially under a decentralized and uncoordinated structure. These subdivisions include criminal investigation, homicide department, narcotics and many others that fall under the same umbrella (Edward, 2003). With a decentralized system, it is hard to recollect all law maintaining units of the country.

For the purposes of ease in management and efficiency of working, the country should adopt a single and centralized system. Under such a system, there will be ease in management since there will be a single chain of command. Also, it will be easier to coordinate the affairs of the police such as strategic planning and budgetary allocation. It will make the fight against crime easier.

Question 3

What is it about the United States (historically, politically, and /or culturally) that would make a single/centralized police structure difficult to implement?

There are many law enforcing units in the United States. For a long time, these bodies have worked autonomously, only interacting on periodic occasions. These include police departments in every state, Department of Homeland Security, the CIA and others. Police departments include LAPD, NYPD and DCPD among others. It would hence be hard to synchronize all of them, especially due to geographical divides. State laws also differ to some extent hence different police departments enforce different sets of rules in their various states.

Question 4

Freedonia

Freedonia fits into the category of single and centralized police structure. This is because there is a fixed geographical and political area where the structure can operate and is usually small. This cannot provide for any other structure. The others require a broad and complex area of control where multiple systems can thrive.